UK News

The Huntington Disease Society of America, with a number of support groups throughout the world, bombarded the Oprah Winfrey Show on the 21st September 1999 with Email. Each email contained the senders story of how Hd had affected their family and asked Oprah to do a show about Huntingtons.

It was thought that if all the email were sent on the same day they would have more impact and hopefully catch the eye of someone connected with the show.

Although Oprah is only seen on satellite television in England, it is still watched by a large number of people and would create awareness of Hd.

England Bans Human Embryo Cloning
Thursday 24th June 1999

The English Government has rejected scientific advice to allow cloning of human embryos for medical research. It is illegal in Britain under the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. However a panel of advisors had said the law should be relaxed to allow cloning of embryos under 14 days old.

It had been widely expected that the Government would follow the advice, but ministers said more time was needed to look into the implications. Pro-life groups had criticised the advice as a step towards full cloning.

USA Cloning of Human Embryos
15th June 1999 The Daily Mail (UK)
Scientists in America are on the verge of producing the world's first cloned human embryo to use in medical experiments. At least two companies, Geron Corp & Advanced Cell Therapeutics (ACT) are involved in the current research.
They say they need to create human embryos by cloning to collect stem cells, a recently discovered type of cell that could be the centre of new treatments for illnesses including diabetes, Parkinson's & Huntington's Disease. Researchers are taking genetic material from a human cell and then inserting it into a human egg whose own DNA has been removed. It is beleived that the egg will start dividing as if it were a young embryo genetically identical to the person who donated the original cell. The idea is for scientists to remove the stem cells and use them to regrow tissue.
The embryos will be destroyed within ten days before they become people which the scientists says does not happen until at least fourteen days.